Festival gets new majority
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Mike Swanson
Discussions to license the Pageant of the Masters will likely
disappear for at least a year as a result of this year’s board of
directors election.
The slate of incumbent David Young, Anita Mangels and Carolyn
Reynolds were selected by Festival of Arts members to serve on the
board, meaning five of the nine seats now publicly oppose the idea to
listen to licensing options. The issue caused an uproar among the
arts community throughout this year’s festival.
The announcement of the winners at the 2003 Festival of Arts
annual meeting Wednesday night drew resounding applause from the
crowd of members in the Forum Theater. Young then made an impromptu
announcement after the noise subsided, honoring the festival and
pageant’s volunteers and noting their importance in keeping the event
in Laguna.
“We’ll never be able to move this festival from Laguna Beach,”
Young said. “Where would we get 500 volunteers in any other place but
here?”
Young, Mangels and Reynolds ran away with the election, with each
receiving more than 70% of the votes on 1,377 cast ballots. Young
received 1,115 votes, while Mangels and Reynolds both received 984.
Bruce Rasner, the now-former president of the board, was a distant
fourth with 293 votes.
Artist Randy Bader, an exhibitor at the festival for more than 20
years, was pleased with the outcome and surprised that an incumbent
received so few votes.
“I think the only people that vote with a certain amount of
knowledge are from Laguna Beach, and the others in Orange County tend
to just go with the status quo,” Bader said. “I find it very
interesting that the vote played out like that.”
Bader considered Rasner among the “warriors” who fought to keep
the festival in Laguna Beach four years ago, who he said did their
good deeds for the festival and now ought to move on.
“Warriors aren’t always the best at running things,” Bader said.
“It’s time for them to step aside and give some other people a chance
to see what they can do.”
Rasner wasn’t present at the meeting, having received an
opportunity last week to travel to Papua New Guinea on an underwater
photography assignment. Rasner has exhibited his photography at the
festival for 13 years.
Young, 90 and first elected to the board in 1954, is looking forward to things returning to normalcy on the festival grounds.
“It’s been crazy around here for the last six years,” Young said.
“We’re going to start getting back to the things we ought to be
doing, helping out the city and getting back into a community groove.
I want to stop hearing about all these crazy tangents about licensing
and what not.
“We’re going to try to make it as perfect as we can.”
Of 2,486 members eligible to vote, 55% did, which Chairman of the
Tellers Jim McBride called extraordinary.
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